Orford characterizes him as a painter of comedy. "If catching the manners and follies of the age, 'living as they rise'; if general satire on vices and ridicules, familiarized by strokes of nature, and heightened by wit, and the whole animated by just and proper expressions of the persons, be comedy, Hogarth composed comedy as much as Moliere." Others have better characterized him as a great moral preacher. Alderman Boydell was accustomed to say that every merchant, shopkeeper, mechanic, and others who had youth in their employment, ought to have some of Hogarth's prints framed and hung up for their admonition.
HOGARTH'S APPRENTICESHIP.
Hogarth was apprenticed, at an early age, to an
engraver of arms on plate. While thus engaged,
his inclination for painting was manifested in a remarkable
manner. Going out one day with some
companions on an excursion to Highgate, the
weather being very hot, they entered a public
house, where before long a quarrel occurred. One
of the disputants struck the other on the head with
a quart pot, which cut him severely; and the blood
running down the man's face, gave him a singular
appearance, which, with the contortions of his countenance,
presented Hogarth with a laughable subject.
Taking out his pencil, he sketched the scene
in such a truthful and ludicrous manner, that order
and good feeling were at once restored.
